Why would this be a surprise? We've come to expect it as it's been the standard M.O. They come to play in the second half and take the first half off. If they have an identity, that's been it - strictly a second-half team. I don't know why it so often takes halftime to get them right, why the same urgency and focus isn't there going into these games. That's not going to cut it for most of what's left and certainly not in DC. If they don't start getting as serious to start games as they are coming out of halftime, they're going to end up with a mediocre seed at best and get bounced fairly early.triplec2195 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 18, 2024 11:10 pmHow can you score 59 points in the second half and just look totally confused in the first. Mind boggling!
Yes, part of it is just basketball. Teams at every level go on runs and take their foot off the gas with big leads. But it's more than that. They haven't simply cut into big deficits, they've been good enough to completely wipe them out every time in these CAA games (four times in the first five league contests now). But they only have one win to show for it because it was too much to ask in three of those games to close well enough to win after overcoming big deficits. Besides the Delaware game, they've trailed by 12, 21, 15, and 18 in the first half. That's inexcusable. There are no good reasons to trail by THAT much so frequently in the opening half. They are better than that. The only win with those four big deficits was against winless-in-CAA-play Hampton. Something is just not getting through to the players that the game always starts at the opening tip, not after halftime. That should be their top priority in prepping for Stony Brook - "We absolutely cannot start so slowly again or like Charleston, like Northeastern, like Campbell, we'll come up short if do." Whatever it takes for the staff to make sure that message is not only heard but really taken to heart, that's their job to hold their players accountable for that.